Anyone who's been boating for awhile knows: confidence is good, but over confidence… and suddenly you're "that guy."
It was my birthday and an unusually warm 80F on that last day of April, so I decided it best to make sales calls on the water. This was one of the first outings of the season for Shady Raider, the LakeExpo mothership, a Donzi center-console I had just picked up the October before. I was confident in my new (to me) boat, and I’d been boating Lake of the Ozarks for 20 years.
My first stop that morning: Soap Creek, up the Gravois Arm. I’ll go ahead and blame the wind, but when I pulled parallel to the dock there was still a bit of a distance — leap-able with a dock line in hand, so that’s what I...
Nope.
My foot slipped on the gunwale and into the Lake I went, catching a face full of water. The dock line in my hand was the saving grace. Coughing up Lake water, I scrambled aboard the drifting boat and hurriedly started the outboards, hoping to keep the props away from shallows and a nearby dock cable.
But apparently, my brain had not yet thawed.
That bit of rope that had just saved me? It screwed around the propellers as they started turning. When twin Merc outboards are set to counter-rotate and a line wraps around both props, it pulls the props together until, in this case, the tie-bar breaks, leaving zero directional control and what I’ll call “floppy engines” (a technical term!)
Happy birthday to me.
This was the most embarrassing time I had to call for a boat tow.
It was not, of course, the only time. We do a lot of boating, and sometimes we run hard. So things break. And it's one thing to break your boat; it's another thing to pay for it. An XTow Captain's Club membership wouldn’t have kept me from stupidly breaking my tie-bar, but it would have paid the towing bill.
So, years later, when our team launched XTow, I thought back to that infamous day of my floppy engines.
If you boat at Lake of the Ozarks, you should have XTow.
Because this kind of thing — or something like it — happens more than you think.
Use discount code BRENT to save $25 on your first year of membership. Might as well profit from my mistake!
What is XTow?
XTow is the membership for Lake of the Ozarks boaters, and our mission is reflected in our motto: “Don’t worry, boat happy!”
Member Benefits:
1. Free towing when things go wrong
Break down, run out of gas, dead battery — you’re covered.
(Average tow: ~$700)
2. Fuel savings all season
Save 10¢/gallon at XTow partner marinas around the lake.
(Most members save $50–$200/year)
When you're not worrying about money, you can actually enjoy Lake time. That's what "Don't worry, boat happy" means.
Learn more and join-up at LakeXTow.com
It's a simple way to feel good about saving money on fuel and to know you'll be okay when boat life happens!
Don't worry, boat happy! See you on the water.
-Brent Simpson, Founder, LakeExpo.com & XTow
